Recommendation for Fibre Modem/Router and Mesh wifi points

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bp1000

93 posts

Master Geek

#267868 15-Feb-2020 12:55

Hi,

I've moved into a new mid-range house with a comms cabinet in the garage, ethernet ports in each of the 5 bedrooms and the main and 2nd living spaces.

It's a 2 storey house and is not overly large. I'm with Spark.

I thought I'd put the modem/router in the comms cabinet and connect it to all the ethernet ports, then put a mesh point in the main living space on the ground floor plus another one in the central bedroom upstairs. That should give me good wifi coverage for the 2 floors and the key outdoor zones.

I've currently got the older Huawei HG659b device, and was thinking to replace that with the Spark Smart Modem.

Then I thought to get 2 Spark Smart Mesh points and connect them to ethernet points.

Questions:

If I have the modem/router in the metal comms cabinet will that block it's wifi signal?

Do the mesh points support connecting back to the modem/router over either wifi or ethernet and is it configurable?

I don't need a high-end setup, just wanting to get gigabit to the ethernet ports and 802.11 a/n/ac. I think I might be able to drop the 2.4GHz types.

I think Spark will provide the Smart Modem for just the cost of shipping if I extend my contract, then I just need to pay for the Smart Mesh points.

Thanks.

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2350 posts

Uber Geek

#2421420 15-Feb-2020 14:42

Probably best to mount the router just outside of the cabinet (I think the Spark Smart Modem has holes for screws to mount)

It's important to note the Spark smart modem only has 3 LAN ports so you may want a gigabit switch in your cabinet for extra ports. (then you'd need power and 2 ethernet cable going back into the cabinet, one for the ONT and one to the gig switch)

From what I've read on here, the Smart Mesh can connect wirelessly or via ethernet (where it becomes a wired AP)

Sean2842

40 posts

Geek

#2421454 15-Feb-2020 16:56

Wired router + Switch for all the ethernet jacks in the various rooms + 2 AP's would be good.

Lorenceo

904 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2421549 15-Feb-2020 21:48

bp1000:

If I have the modem/router in the metal comms cabinet will that block it's wifi signal?

It will likely have a negative impact on it, yes. Can you put the modem/router in another room, with a cable back from it to a switch in the comms cabinet? Could possibly reduce the number of mesh units you need?

bp1000:

Do the mesh points support connecting back to the modem/router over either wifi or ethernet and is it configurable?

Both. They'll default to Ethernet when they detect other mesh devices on the LAN, otherwise they will create a wireless backhaul link between them.

bp1000

93 posts

Master Geek

#2423979 19-Feb-2020 12:54

Thanks everyone for the replies. I can cable from ONT in comms cubpoard to modem/router in the main living room and cable it back to a switch in the comms cupboard. Then I can run a single mesh unit upstairs that connects back to the switch.

That sounds like the best option.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2425092 21-Feb-2020 16:59

I was thinking of buying a Google Wifi system, but that's kind of pricey. A tech at my ISP recommended Kogan Mesh x 3 system which happens to be on special ($133 delivered). Is there a downside to these I'm not aware of - or something else I should be looking at?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2433198 5-Mar-2020 14:32

I got my gigabit fibre connected today. So I ordered a Kogan Mesh Wifi @ the 1/2 price offer for the hell of it. Has kind of mixed and a few crappy reviews. The NF18 router supplied by the ISP works a bit better range-wise than I expected on 5GHz. About 20 metres and an internal wall away, I'm getting about 220 down / 100 (edit - 200 up as well) up on this notebook. On 2.4 band, it's about 40. (so more than I need vs less than I wanted is good) Via ethernet, the connection is > 800 down / 500 up.

I'll post back here when the (too?) cheap mesh wifi has arrived and I've set it up.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2435780 10-Mar-2020 16:16

The Kogan AC1200 Mesh Wifi system arrived an hour of so ago:

Set up was very easy using Kogan android app.

Signal strength is excellent, where I'm sitting, about 10m from the nearest node (and the router), it's about 15-20dB better than the router Wifi, and signal strength is excellent throughout the house.

But there's a serious problem, bandwidth even if sitting on top of any node is just under 100/100. Where I'm sitting now using the Netgear NF18ACV router wifi, I get >200/200 despite relatively poor signal.

Why could this be? Quick test by plugging a PC in to the ethernet port on the node (instead of the router) and whoops, bandwidth is also 100/100. It looks like they made a mesh wifi system with good wifi etc - but they cheaped out by not putting gigabit ethernet ports in the things.

LOL - when something seems too good to be true it probably is, but surprised that nobody else on Kogan site reviews mentioned it.

Edit - double LOL - it actually says 100/100 on the specs on the Kogan site. I should learn to read better.

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Jase2985

13466 posts

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#2435819 10-Mar-2020 17:02

lol advertise a AC1200 mess point with 100mbps ethernet. thats awesome

cyril7

9058 posts

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#2435837 10-Mar-2020 17:25

Classic

Go kogan

Cyril

k1w1k1d

1530 posts

Uber Geek

#2435991 10-Mar-2020 20:15

Hope you are going to do a review?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2435999 10-Mar-2020 20:39

k1w1k1d:

Hope you are going to do a review?

I kind of did - above?

Seriously, for $130 delivered - I didn't have high expectations, and for the price of a tank of gas I cared so little that I never noticed that they said 100/100 on their site. I cannot blame Kogan for this.

The wifi ability of the system seems to be great. The fact that there's no way to connect even the primary node to gigabit ethernet is a serious flaw I should have seen coming - so my stupid on that.

It actually solves about 50% of the issues I wanted to solve. Guest bedroom and garage now get good 100/100 wifi when it was near zero before, which is fine. The 50% it doesn't solve is that in my office (not where the router is) is stuck with kind of sucky wifi bandwidth, so I either fork out the $$$ I should have done for a better mesh system, or deal with spiders and unspeakable hazards, and run some cat 6 from the router position to the office.

Edit:

One other sucky thing I noticed in my self-inflicted path to half-*rsed solutions, is that the 2019 model Samsung 4K TV in the bedroom has no 5GHz wifi. I could blather on about how freaking annoying their OS is, for example when you change a wifi network, keeping the same SSID and password and expect things to "just work" and it doesn't. Sorted - but a PITA.

everettpsycho

615 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2436067 10-Mar-2020 22:20

I have the tenda mw6 which is a step up on the kogan mesh network that had the gigabit ports. It's not perfect but I got 3 nodes for $180 off AliExpress with a us plug and it's pretty good for what I paid. I'm not sure what kogan did to the ones you have firmware wise but an mw6 does work with the MW3 that the kogans are a rebadge of. So in theory an mw6 may be able to be used as your primary node to get gigabit speeds in to the mesh. I don't understand why kogan don't offer a version of the mw6 to work with these considering the increased availability of fibre, just a single node and gigabit port would make them so much more usable.

On gigabit fibre we tend to get about 300mbps out of the mw6, I've got it as high as 400 a couple of times. This is with a primary and secondary wired together then a third wireless node. It's a bit overkill for our house but I chose to use 2 wired ones to try and get more capacity for wireless backhaul to the bedroom keeping enough bandwidth for our devices. I did experiment and having the extra node did help a bit. The hardest bit was working out how the wired backhaul worked as the instructions it came with were useless.

Edit: looking at the apps the kogan app is practically identical to the tenda one.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kogan.KoganRouter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tenda.router.app

Long shot but can you add the kogan units in the tenda app? I'm not sure if you can flash the original tenda firmware but if you can get them to act like mw3s you could stick an mw6 in the to the mix to sort your issues.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2436084 10-Mar-2020 23:43

everettpsycho:

Long shot but can you add the kogan units in the tenda app? I'm not sure if you can flash the original tenda firmware but if you can get them to act like mw3s you could stick an mw6 in the to the mix to sort your issues.

By gum- that's a good suggestion - I'll give it a go tomorrow (tenda app).

OTOH, being able to plug a PC in the office in to a mesh node and get gigabit speed wouldn't be solved if that mesh mode only had 100Mb ethernet ports (like the Kogan things) - however ~300Mbs wifi is better than 100Mbs wired - if it worked.

sbiddle

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#2436094 11-Mar-2020 07:05

Fred99:

OTOH, being able to plug a PC in the office in to a mesh node and get gigabit speed wouldn't be solved if that mesh mode only had 100Mb ethernet ports (like the Kogan things) - however ~300Mbs wifi is better than 100Mbs wired - if it worked.

I'd take 100Mbps Ethernet over 300Mbps WiFi 100% of the time. There simply is no comparison between the two.

everettpsycho

615 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2436103 11-Mar-2020 07:44

I don't think you'd see much difference other than speed on worked Vs wired in this case. The wired solution still uses a wireless node so you'd probably wider the issues you'd also get just straight up using WiFi. I'm going to use the ethernet ports on my wireless one to feed my smart vu puck, but the gain for me is the WiFi in that thing is garbage and almost renders it unusable when it's not a good connection so I'd rather the mw6 deal with it.

I often see these on sale in the UK quite cheap and a lot of people seem to be getting them. They do tend to offer a single mw6 with them though which improves them no end. Stupid thing is over there fibre isn't rolled out so the gigabit ports are wasted on their internet as hardly anyone breaks through the 100Mbps mark.

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